Agony

Because I like to keep our blog focused on happy things, I have agonized for weeks over whether I should write about this or not. I finally decided that I need to.

This is a roping donkey. As is the case in West Texas, donkeys are popular here in some circles as a training tool for roping horses.

On a regular basis, this donkey is tied to the end of the pole shown in this picture. This makes it so that he can only run in a circle when people on horseback chase him and rope his head and his feet.

Unfortunately, there isn’t anything that can be done since he is in good body condition and “appears” healthy. The roping issue won’t cut it with law enforcement here.

There are reasons why many people feel donkeys shouldn’t be used for roping:

Donkeys are work and friend animals and aren’t made for roping.

They can’t handle it physically or emotionally.

As you know, donkeys have long necks. The esophagus of a steer is located higher and deeper in the muscles of their necks, which are shorter than that of a donkey.

A donkey’s esophagus can be crushed by a rope because of its placement and exposure.

Rope burns. They wrap steers’ horns to protect them, but do they wrap anything on donkeys? (The answer is no.)

The stifle joints of a donkey (similar to a person’s knee) can’t handle that type of roping.

And then there are reasons that people train roping horses on donkeys:

If law enforcement won’t do anything, will the Humane Society or PEATA? The practice must be stopped. Glad you talked about it on your blog — this way maybe more minds kind come up with ideas/solutions.

Agreeing with you about trying to focus on the positive, BUT……….. If we all sweep the icky stuff under the rug, well, things will only get worse………. When something is Just Wrong, I think we have a duty to stand up and say so.

I’ve always thought that roping anything for sport is horrible………..

We humans have an awful lot to answer for, as a species………..

I will be happy to write a letter and/or make a contribution, once I know where to send?

I will refrain from using the very bad words that are running through my head right now against those who treat these poor animals in such a horrific way. I wish we could tie up those people and chase them around on a big horse and rope them to see how they like it! Thank you for posting this – it needs to be given attention. The more attention it gets, the better the chances are for banning this practice. Let us know if we can assist in any way in helping get this poor baby a better home.

He actually looks depressed. I can’t help but imagine how awful I would feel if this was the fate my sweet little Russell could face. I can’t even put into words how I’m feeling right now. This horrible practice must be stopped. What can we do to help this little guy and stop this from happening to other donkeys?

Roping is necessary for ranching cattle, and team roping as a sport hones the skills needed to treat cattle on the range. However, that doesn’t excuse using donkeys to improve roping skills. There are plenty of mechanical roping dummies that can be used, and can be cheaply built with a little ingenuity.
I agree that using donkeys for this purpose should be banned. If you rescue this donkey, they will just replace it with another one. Perhaps offering a way to replace the donkey with a mechanical dummy would prevent another donkey from suffering this fate. Then lobby the politicians to get this practice banned as inhumane.
So, inventors, come up with an affordable alternative, based on the existing contraption you see in these photos, add a small motor and a mock-up of a steer, and market it to these people.

I’ve read this post about 5 times throughout the day as I just can’t get the image of the poor, sad little donkey out of my head. We should definitely buy them a substitute for the sweet donkey. Thank you for posting his story.. no matter how sad. We can’t turn the blind eye in face of such cruelty… because this is pure cruelty and abuse. Couldn’t some animal welfare society do something about this unnecessary practice?

Some time ago I noticed the new “STOP Donkey Team Roping” (SDTR) link on this site and clicked on it. The articles I found on that site date back to 2009; before I could look for some link to a petition, or at least current info, my fire wall sounded a virus alarm, so I didn’t pursue this further. I haven’t run SDTR by snopes to see whether they are legit. Do you have good info on SDTR, e.g., are they petitioning legislators to ban such abusive practices?

Sorry I missed this post yesterday. I’ve been obsessed with another issue lately, the rescue of our local Feral Cat colony from a sicko who has laid trails of raw chicken to lead a pack of Coyotes right up to their site to hunt them.

We’ve discussed Donkey Team Roping before, but I hadn’t thought of the Facebook idea that Mel suggested. I’ve just put your link on my Facebook wall. If everyone else here who’s on FB does the same it sure can’t hurt and may just help generate a groundswell of support and some more good ideas.

Yesterday I thought I do very bad translaion and cant´t get the context. I would not believe that donkeys are used as a training-tool!
That should be forbidden by law.
I´m very sad to see this poor little donkey as all who answered to this post.
I wish someone can take him home without they replace him by another poor creature there.

Justina thank you for posting this.
Let´s focus on happy things and let us face the facts.

Could someone manage to secretly video tape them doing this? It could then be posted on You Tube. I’m betting there already are others on there. Lot’s of folks on You Tube are protesting other rodeo sports already.

When I posted this story on Facebook, someone suggested some kind of mechanical replacement for the burro. (Now that I’ve gone back through all the comments above, I see that someone else here suggested that).

Oh no… =( for your sake I won’t spew the words in my head and my heart. Isn’t Horse Tripping illegal in Texas? Wouldn’t this fall under the Horse Tripping bill? If they rope the hinds causing the Burro to fall I believe it could be argued that this should fall under the horse tripping laws as a Burro is classified as an equine. Maybe that is possible??

I do belive that that Burro should be ‘liberated’. However… I also know when I met Eeyore, a rescued and re-homed roping Donkey that his new home said that in the beginning, any time they tried to approach him that he would run to the nearest corner, put his front end in there and kick wildly at anyone that tried to approach him. That is probably why the Burro in this situation has that awful and sad looking halter on him… so they can easily catch him… liberating him would likely be difficult.